Anonymous gifts

[Randy]

I have encountered with situation, when I want to gift a game to a person, but I do no want him to know that this game is from me. So, I suppose it would be only for the best if there was an option to gift anonymously, only leaving a message.

It is also can be useful when a group of people wants to present a gift to a person, but do not want to sent it from personal account.

[Hextravert]

An anonymous gift sure sounds sweet and mysterious. Like a secret admirer! Good suggestion; I would want to make use of it and/or receive mystery gifts myself. Kudos!

[Black Blade]

Originally posted by Randy:

I have encountered with situation, when I want to gift a game to a person, but I do no want him to know that this game is from me. So, I suppose it would be only for the best if there was an option to gift anonymously, only leaving a message.

It is also can be useful when a group of people wants to present a gift to a person, but do not want to sent it from personal account.

Here is a small idea for you then make a new free account... add him a game (maybe get one or more on a bundle so it can be low as 1$) and then call it anonymous and gift using him your friend will not know who you are
(get at least one game so the account will be able to add friends and more)

[Randy]

Originally posted by Black Blade:

Originally posted by Randy:

I have encountered with situation, when I want to gift a game to a person, but I do no want him to know that this game is from me. So, I suppose it would be only for the best if there was an option to gift anonymously, only leaving a message.

It is also can be useful when a group of people wants to present a gift to a person, but do not want to sent it from personal account.

Here is a small idea for you then :D: make a new free account... add him a game (maybe get one or more on a bundle so it can be low as 1$) and then call it anonymous and gift using him :D: your friend will not know who you are
(get at least one game so the account will be able to add friends and more)

Yeah, but it is a way to bypass current situation. I think it won't hurt if there would be an option to gift anonymously right away :) Also, I am not sure what is an official steam policy about 2nd account

[Fox]

Originally posted by Randy:

I have encountered with situation, when I want to gift a game to a person, but I do no want him to know that this game is from me. So, I suppose it would be only for the best if there was an option to gift anonymously, only leaving a message.

It is also can be useful when a group of people wants to present a gift to a person, but do not want to sent it from personal account.

Why don't you want to acknowledge that you sent a gift ? I fail to see the point in this suggestion.

[Black Blade]

Originally posted by Randy:

Yeah, but it is a way to bypass current situation. I think it won't hurt if there would be an option to gift anonymously right away :) Also, I am not sure what is an official steam policy about 2nd account

do not think there is a problem with a second account even more:

Before you proceed with purchasing the Greenlight Submission fee, you may want to create a new Steam account to represent your company.

Source
So there there even telling that they suggest some one do it (even that its a little far streash as its not so related reasons XD)
Any how i have abut 4 accounts... even that i mainly use these one

Originally posted by Fox:

Why don't you want to acknowledge that you sent a gift ? I fail to see the point in this suggestion.

Sometime its nice to give someone something and leave him not knowing it was you.. its like a higher level of gifting sometimes you can say as you do not take any credit for it and do it 100% for him

[Fox]

Originally posted by Black Blade:

Sometime its nice to give someone something and leave him not knowing it was you.. its like a higher level of gifting sometimes you can say as you do not take any credit for it and do it 100% for him

I personally find this concept very creepy... or even potentially dangerous (suggestive message with anonymous gift to your non-single friend = way to break up your friend's couple) !
At least a non-anonymous gift allows your friend to shrug off any doubt whatsoever.

[Black Blade]

Originally posted by Fox:

I personally find this concept very creepy... or even potentially dangerous (suggestive message with anonymous gift to your non-single friend = way to break up your friend's couple) !
At least a non-anonymous gift allows your friend to shrug off any doubt whatsoever.

O.o
I don't know something like "Here Call of Duty: Ghost why not leave your boy friend" sounds a little far no?

I am looking for problems with something like these... the main one i can see is someone gifting a game that they got with a stolen card... but yet.. i just do not see were it harms for real

[Fox]

Originally posted by Black Blade:

O.o
I don't know something like "Here Call of Duty: Ghost why not leave your boy friend" sounds a little far no?

Trollfriend sends a gift to you with love letter attached.
GF/BF "accidentally" sees it, and takes it as genuine.
???
Profit ?

And that's only one example I thought of at the instant.

/me crosses out an item in the "impossible topics to say in the forums" list.

Originally posted by Black Blade:

I am looking for problems with something like these... the main one i can see is someone gifting a game that they got with a stolen card... but yet.. i just do not see were it harms for real

Now that I pulled out an example from whereever I found it, I guess the message system might be abused... If you intent to keep this suggestion, I'd recommend having a limited set of messages to choose from.
Also, the creepiness factor is involved, but since it's only my personnal feelings about it, I wouldn't argue for it.

[Black Blade]

Ok got it.. and that is a problem.. maybe really the idea of only a few type of messages will work
Even that for real i think if two break up on something like that they have some problem

And i can maybe understand the creeping of that...

[Randy]

I find this breaking girlfriend\boyfriend connection is a bit childish and silly concept but I can understand this. Still, if some guy will send a gift non-anonymously, what will boyfriend do? Find him in real life? Oh, please.

I don't see what you can do if you know that the person who send this gift was me for example. For insulting or threats there should be some kind of button where you can tell support about this and support can handle the person who send it. It may restrict him to gift anonymously in future.

You can't gift smth if you are not friends with the person, so at least you know it is somebody from your friend list.

[Fox]

Originally posted by Randy:

I find this breaking girlfriend\boyfriend connection is a bit childish and silly concept but I can understand this. Still, if some guy will send a gift non-anonymously, what will boyfriend do? Find him in real life? Oh, please.

I don't see what you can do if you know that the person who send this gift was me for example. For insulting or threats there should be some kind of button where you can tell support about this and support can handle the person who send it. It may restrict him to gift anonymously in future.

You can't gift smth if you are not friends with the person, so at least you know it is somebody from your friend list.

True, my example was one of the worst I could bring up, but at least it highlighted the potential abuse of anonymous custom messages and their consequences.

I definitely agree for the "report harsh message" and consequences, even if I'd still prefer preset messages. The limitation to friends is common sense.

[Randy]

Preset messages is also a fine option, I see nothing bad about it.

Speaking about game gifts which is not allowed to trade for 30 days or smth like this, they should not be allowed to gift this way.

As for the reasons: Sometimes, if I want to give a gift, a person would see this gift as he owns me smth in the future, which is not why I want them to receive gift from me or he won't understand why am I gifting smth.

[Fox]

Originally posted by Randy:

As for the reasons: Sometimes, if I want to give a gift, a person would see this gift as he owns me smth in the future, which is not why I want them to receive gift from me or he won't understand why am I gifting smth.

I got this "imaginary debt" from one of my close friends, one year ago, and this was resolved by simply talking about it. Are they that much committed or cautious up to the point to think about a reason for everything ? If so, this starts to makes sense...

The trade ban is quite disjoint from the actual offense (Do I punish you by not posting on the forums if you spam a profile's comment, for example ?). Preventing them from gifting anonymously for a minimum of 15 days or forcing them to gift non-anonymously before they can use the feature again seems, if harsh, more appropriate as a response to the offense made.